Faulks on Fiction

Click on the image to buy the BBC book. A new BBC series, Faulks on Fiction (based on Faulks’ book, available from the BBC website), starts this Saturday (5th February) at 9pm on BBC2. Sebastian Faulks will be looking at the heroes of the British novel in early works such as Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe and the snobs of British literature in Fleming’s James Bond. This series looks set to make a departure from the usual, and often dryly presented, author-obsessed critiques of literary works, instead focusing on the characters and worlds created by British writers.

It does seem quite heavily weighted on the masculine side doesn’t it? I recall Faulks saying “there are some women in there…” on the BBC Breakfast programme yesterday, which alluded to a slight bias. I haven’t yet read the book of the same title; it might be interesting to note the balance in there. I’ve always had an aversion to being told what a book’s ‘supposed’ to be about (with the exception of Orwell’s unbiased reviews), but Faulks’ lighthearted approach seems quite appealing.